Muff's Modules & More

ersatzplanet · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:32 pm Post subject:

Synth players can be just as boring to look at as laptop players. We're both just pushing buttons and turning knobs and making huge sounds with little movement. I have 3 laptops in my studio along with my +24U of modular - the laptops are just fancy VCOs in my rig. If you use MIDI or a sequencer you are not too far from a laptopest either.

Everything is a potential instrument. Lame performers will be lame whatever they use and good performers will be good whatever they use too.

-James

gwaidan · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:46 am Post subject:

Really interesting discussion but I think the punters who give a shit will notice the difference. I remember hearing a caller review a Chemical brothers gig on Triple J radio in the early 2000s and say how they saw one of them press play on a DAT machine and that made the reviewer realise how they'd just paid $45 to watch someone press play on a DAT machine. Owww...

The biggest problem with laptops IMHO is when they become the front-and-center focus of performance rather than a brain for monomes, keyboards etc-that screen between the performer and audience which the performer focusses on to the exclusion of the audience is just as much a psychological barrier as Roger Waters' wall. Think about it-you wouldn't think much of a sales clerk who stared fixedly at their terminal while serving you - why should a performing artist get away with the same behaviour?

dkcg · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 2:15 am Post subject:

I insist you play with your modular. Use your laptop as a safety net if you don't like being naked. thumbs up

Live looper is pretty cool, and the beat slicer can do some neat things to live audio.

jenamu6 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 2:29 am Post subject:

I've seen a million live shows. Laptop acts suck.

ripit · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:20 am Post subject:

If you stay local or only travel with your own vehicle, use hardware, if you're roaming the world by plane, use laptop and few small toys... Unless you're over paid for your shows and can offer extra fees for maximum cares handling your suitcase in the plane, OR even send your gears thrue UPS between your shows.

As roaming the world playing shows is far more fun than "playing your modular rig than your laptop", the choice is easy.

wintermute · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:01 am Post subject:

wintermute · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:03 am Post subject:

pugix · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:31 am Post subject:

Regarding the appearance of performing in live music, electronic music by its nature affords modes of performance that different markedly from the virtuoso instrumentalist of classical performance. It's common in some genres to disdain such virtuosity and even to make a point of mocking it as a false value.

It comes down to audience expectations. My wife has pointed out the disconnect between what an electronic musician is apparently doing and the sound that's produced. It's much harder to make that connection than it is with a guitar or piano player, where you can relate finger movements to sounds. I think that when you perform live electronic music, you should not worry about this. If you've got the right audience, they will respect you, even if you are using a mouse and keyboard. You are interested mainly in the sound, and only secondarily in how you look on stage. How you're making it is less important than the fact that you're doing it live in front of an audience. If someone is stupid enough to think you just pressed 'play' and then faked it, why should you care?

That's not to say that an electronic music performance can't have theatrical elements. But it's important to distinguish these from the music.

Johnisfaster · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject:

CursedFrogurt · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:51 pm Post subject:

I once went to a classical piano concert. It fucking sucked. All the guy did is sit down and hide behind that giant fucking piano. Just twiddled his fingers and shit. I couldn't even see him do anything.

Classical piano is bullshit.

Johnisfaster · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 4:57 pm Post subject:

If the arent bouncing around and punching their fist in the air then how am I supposed to continue chin stroking?

Chuck E. Jesus · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:25 pm Post subject:

i've seen Psychic TV and Hafler Trio both use nothing but cassettes... i did a gig in the late 80's with a borrowed Mac Classic (i think?) running a pre-commercial version of MAX controlling robot drumsticks made with dowel rods, car door openers, and duct tape , did another gig with a portastudio driving an MMT-8 drivng a small all Doepfer modular, did another gig where i sang thru a pitchshifter along to a pre-recorded "karoke" video...

i guess i don't have a point other than use what you have available and don't suck...

theglyph · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:45 pm Post subject:

soundsculptor · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:04 pm Post subject:

Johnisfaster · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:15 pm Post subject:

It just makes no sense to blame an object for a persons lack of performance ability. The only thing the laptop did was make it really easy for unskilled people to get on stage. Don't blame the laptop, blame the dude that got on stage and didn't have the foresight to make it interesting in the process. A person with real talent and desire to put on an interesting show could do so with a rocking chair a microphone and a vcr, or... call me crazy.. a laptop.

authorless · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:18 pm Post subject:

Yes, I the past year every show I have played has been all modular (except two time with modular and 606 and my brother looping guitar and bass). I use the laptop to record and for effects and occasionally for grabbing loops. I go in unpatched but with a basic idea of what I want to do. I usually sit on the floor. The downside is prior to the modular my entire setup fit into a backpack. The upside is it is really fun and I often find myself quite pleased with what I do. I like thinking in the moment, not getting to caught up in minutia, looking at how many patch chords I have left and trying to figure out if i can squeeze out one more sound or how i can alter the sounds that I have going. I usually play from between 25 and 40 minutes (though most often it is around 25 minutes).

stk · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:47 am Post subject:

Laptop shmaptop hihi

I'll echo what some others have said. I've attended and mixed a fair share of electronic gigs, and I think a "laptop performer" has just as much potential as any other musician to be visually entertaining.

The hurdles are potentially greater, though - staring at the back of someone's macbook does not an entertaining experience make.

Someone mentioned earlier about the "physical disconnect" between computer and performer (as opposed to an inherently physical instrument), and I couldn't agree more.

I like to be visually engaged - we all do - and I reckon if someone must get up onstage with *just* a laptop, they should at least project some kind of visuals too.

I use a computer with my main band, allows me to do stuff otherwise not possible, but it's mounted in a rack case so is never really visible.

Anyway, I just like it when people get out and play live. It's never a bad thing.

CursedFrogurt · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:26 am Post subject:

Construct a giant steampunk synthesizer with huge weighted levers and blinking lights. The synth is completely empty, but for a cubby on the backside that holds your laptop. Dance around it pulling random levers and twisting victorian bathtub knobs. Maybe put a cappuccino machine in there and let some steam out every now and then.

Best laptop performance EVAR!

sascha.victoria · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:46 am Post subject: